_The Unsinkable Cassiopeia, Pt. I, Section A, Chapter 1, Subsection (a)_
The ruggedly handsome, dashingly charming Captain Thoth stood upon the top
deck looking out onto remains of the Kitty Litter, the heaving behemoth of
a ship in its last death throes, belching forth midnight smoke from the
gaping mouth of a wound that occasionally still licked with a tongue of
sunset flame, sinking ever deeper into the velvet embrace of the sea. T'was
a good battle, the captain reflected, admiring the accuracy at which he
himself delivered the fatal pyrotechnics from the catapult of doom.
His dastardly attention soon turned toward his prize, the Princess Cassiopeia.
It was she who prompted this daring attack upon a royal trireme. Oh, how
magnificent she looked, thought Thoth, thoroughly enthralled. She yet
struggled, albeit weakly, against her bonds. The uncaring wind whipped
pass, running its fingers through her corn-silk manes and tugging suggestively
at her torn and tattered dress. Aye, she makes a very attractive mast
decoration, indeed.
Ah, t'would be exquisite if he could but sit and admire the Princess'
beauty and underwear all day long, but the afternoon wears on, crawling
inexorably toward that point in time where it will pass the torch to
its sibling, the evening. Things must be done before that point, loots
to count, maids to violate, people to kill. Thoth turned away with a
great sense of loss from the woman he had forceably kidnapped from the
fools they called the royal bodyguards. "OT!" the captain bellowed, mostly
because he can't pronounce Orbis Tenebrius (probably can't spell it, either).
"Come here and let's enjoy some of our good fortunes!"
Orbis, the young and impressionable recruit, sprang up to where the
captain was standing.
"Sure Captain", Orbis tittered, "how about letting me...", he trailed off,
looking once at the whip in his hand and then glancing toward the center
mast, where Princess Cassi had finally given up on struggling against what
must be impossibly tight restraints.
"Why would you want to do that?" The captain inquired.
"I need a reason?" Orbis looked baffled.
"HAW! HAW! That's the way to think, Boy!" He slapped Orbis soundly on the
back. "Why don't we go over and take a closer look at the fair lady?"
Thoth puts his arm around Orbis' shoulders and led him toward the Princess.
The Princess, exhausted from hours of struggling, now hangs mutely on
the ropes, her hair matted from her sweat and the ocean mist. Her head
jerked up, however, at the approaching footsteps--footsteps she is now
intimately familiar with--those that belonged to the dread pirate Thoth.
She stared deep into the ebony eyes of the dread pirate, trying desperately
to read her fate in those enigmatic oculi. He glared back at her with
such maliciousness that she turned her head away in fear, only to look
into the visage of the young Orbis. Her demeanor softens momentarily as
she looked into a pure soul in this orgy of lust and disgust. Immediately,
however, she realized that she had been fooled, for the whip in Orbis' hand
hung expertly in the breeze, portending events to come--events that she did
not look forward to at all, yet (literary device called "foreshadowing").
"Good face, eh?" Thoth grabbed her by the chin before she can pull away from
his rough grip.
"Yes, but she doesn't have too much up here", he pointed toward her chest.
"Naw, you don't need them. Them big'uns don't feel the stings of that
whip as well a nice, tight configuration. Besides, the extra flesh just
gets in the way of a good pattern."
"OK, if you say so", Orbis agreed dubiously.
"Why don't you whip them..er..her a few times and see?" Thoth suggested,
wiping slobber from the corner of his mouth.
"Sure. Could you remove her dress?"
"Naaah. Let's see how far you've progressed with that whip. Why don't
you take the dress off with it?"
Orbis stepped and cocked his arm back. Cassi's eyes widened, then
clamped shut tightly, in anticipation of the first taste of the well
oiled leather. She was not disappointed. The first few blows landed
expertly and shredded her already tattered dress. The next few ripped
and disengaged all of her underthings. Soon Cassi stood, tied, in her
naked glory (hey, don't ask me how the ropes stayed on while the dress
got torn away. OT is an _expert_, OK? Sheesh.)
During this ordeal, Cassiopeia never let out a sound. She squirmed and
bled, but never let out a sound. She was not going to give her tormenters
the satisfaction of hearing her scream, even if she has to bite through
her lower lip to keep quiet. She was determined.
Thoth, too, was determined--determined to break this haughty taughty
woman lashed to his mast. Even so, he was quite impressed by her deter-
mination. Orbis, too, was determined--he was determined on reproducing
the Los Angeles freeway system on Cassi's chest, had such a system existed
at such a place. All three of them was quite deterministic.
Finally, after what seems like an hour of non-stop whipping, Orbis became
visibly tired. Thoth noticed and decided to give Cassi a few blows himself.
He's not satisfied until he has licked her in this game of endurance.
Just when Thoth had cracked every joint in his body in preparation for
his masterful strokes upon the now crimson Princess, a shout from an
unknown extra wafted down from the crow's nest:
"Ship on the horizon, Captain!"
Shit, Thoth cursed under his breath. "Who is it? Can you make out his
color?"
"No sir, not yet...Wait...I've got it! *gasp* It's...HIM!"